The Managing Director of Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, Engr. Lars Richter, has stated that the company was awarded the contracts for three top priority projects of the federal government: 2nd Niger Bridge, Abuja-Kano Road, and Lagos-Sagamu Expressway through due process.
A press statement by the company’s media department in Abuja said Richter made the assertion on Thursday at the National Assembly Abuja during a hearing by the House of Representatives Committee on Works investigation on the slow pace of work on ongoing federal road projects.
According to the statement, the MD denied a suggestion that Julius Berger did not get the contracts following due process as the company lawfully bidded for the projects, after which the rest of the contract award process remained the statutory responsibility of the Ministry of Works.
“The Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP) duly issued letters of No Objection for the projects as required by extant procurement law,” he said.
In response to the House Works Committee Chairman’s statement that the procurement process for projects in Nigeria is of three types, namely, Selective, Competitive and Direct procurement, Richter said: “We are an engineering contracting company,and as a going business concern, we reasonably bid for projects, but we are not by law part of the official procurement process that is the statutory duty of the Ministry.
“It is the Ministry of Works that receives a Letter of No Objection to any contract; not our company. The Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) itself vets the rates contractors submit to the Ministry, and the Ministry again takes the rates vetted by the BPP to the Federal Executive Council for approval by the President in Council.
“Julius Berger is not at all entitled to a say in the process apart from the submission of our bid for a project with the Ministry. In the circumstance, I therefore cannot and did not say Julius Berger did not follow due process of award for the projects. We lawfully bidded for the jobs and were duly awarded the projects.”
A high point of Thursday’s hearing was Richter’s assurance that in all the projects, Julius Berger was, technically speaking, working assiduously within the schedules of planned works, and even working ahead of time in certain scheduled works.
Earlier, in his opening remark, the Chairman of the Committee, Hon Abubakar Kabir Abubakar, said the agenda of the hearing was enquiry into what procurement process Julius Berger went through for the award of the contracts; the cost at which each of the projects were awarded for; and completion periods the projects were to be delivered.
A member of the Committee, Hon Kaoje, while acknowledging that Julius Berger was a known engineering construction contractor in Nigeria, said the Committee has legislative, appropriative as well as oversight functions over the prudent and successful execution of capital projects in the country.
The Julius Berger MD was by a motion carried by the Committee put on oath before he spoke at the hearing, and by another motion moved by the deputy chairman of the committee, Julius Berger was asked to go back and put forward to the Committee a formally signed presentation to the Committee on the three projects, the subject matter of the hearing.
The chairman of the house committee on Works thereafter adjourned the public hearing sine die.
